Dec 28 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on December 28:
1923 – Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer who built the tower in Paris that bears his name, died aged 91.
1937 – The French composer Maurice Ravel died aged 62; his works included “Bolero”, which won popular fame.
1968 – Israeli commandos bombed Beirut airport, destroying 13 planes, after attacks on Israeli aircraft.
1974 – An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 destroyed villages in the Karakoram mountains in Pakistan, leaving 5,200 dead and more than 16,000 injured.
1993 – The Russian ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky was ordered to leave Bulgaria within 24 hours for insulting President Zhelyu Zhelev.
2003 – The conservative businessman Oscar Berger won a presidential election in Guatemala, returning power to the landed elite.
2004 – Ukrainian liberal challenger Viktor Yushchenko won a re-run of a fraudulent presidential election with 52 percent of the vote, defeating Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.
2005 – The European Union launched its first Galileo navigation satellite, moving to challenge the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS).
2008 – Fruit and cream cake in Bucharest sets world record for world’s heaviest cake.
2011 – Funeral procession for late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
2014 – Car ferry Norman Atlantic catches fire in waters off Greece.
